Lawyer Faces Ethics Case Over His Claimed Role in Dividing $1.6M Settlement Among Clients

Successful in obtaining $1.6 million in out-of-court settlements on behalf of 15 men who said they were sexually abused as teenagers by a Catholic priest serving as a prison chaplain at an Oregon reform school in the 1970s, a Salem lawyer now faces a legal ethics case over the manner in which the money was divided up.

Dan Gatti says he did nothing wrong. But the Oregon State Bar has filed a complaint with the state supreme court accusing the attorney of failing to obtain informed consent from his clients to his role in helping the Portland Archdiocese determine how the funds should be allocated between the men, reports the Statesman Journal.

A trial of the ethics case is expected to take place this summer. Gatti, 66, says he hopes the case can be resolved without a trial.

“No depositions have been taken. No discovery has occurred,” he told the newspaper. “I’m really hopeful that when they do a deposition, their discovery, it will just go away because that’s what it should do, go away.”